Bivouac-Lee And Jackson - Chancellorsville VA
N 38° 17.697 W 077° 37.517
18S E 270414 N 4241801
A granite block monument marks the spot Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson held a 'Cracker Barrel Conference' during the Civil War. It would be the last time they would meet.
Waymark Code: WMB7C5
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 04/14/2011
Views: 6
At the intersection of Old Plank Rd. and McLaws Dr., Gen. R. E. Lee and Gen. Stonewall Jackson met on the night of May 1, 1863 to discuss strategy against the Union army who vastly outnumbered their troops at Chancellorsville, Virginia. It would be the last time Lee and Jackson would see each other alive. This spot, known as the
Lee-Jackson Bivouac
is marked by a granite block monument inscribed:
BIVOUAC
LEE AND JACKSON
NIGHT OF
MAY 1, 1863.
This is one of ten monuments in the Fredericksburg area erected by James Power Smith in 1903. Captain Smith was Jackson's aide-de-camp who joined his staff in September 1862. He was with Jackson through the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. According to Headquarters: Army of Northern Virginia
:
Smith then became the only eye-witness to a great moment in American history: “Sometime after midnight I was awakened by the chill of the early morning hours, and turning over, caught a glimpse of a little flame on the slope above me, and sitting up to see what it meant, I saw, bending over a scant fire of twigs, two men seated on old cracker boxes and warming their hands over a little fire. I had to rub my eyes and collect my wits to recognize the figures of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Who can tell the story of that quiet council of war between two sleeping armies.”
By his account and postwar placement of a monument, Smith immortalized this 'Cracker Barrel Conference'.
Smith stayed with Jackson until his death after being mortally wounded by friendly fire at Chancellorsville.
After the War, James Smith served as a Presbyterian minister in Fredericksburg. He wrote extensively of his experiences in the Civil War and not only erected the monuments in Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, but also helped dedicate other memorials in Richmond and Gettysburg, PA. When he died in 1923, he was the last surviving member of Stonewall Jackson's staff.